- Smoking lowers the amount of oxygen in your body. Airsacs in the lungs can be destroyed as soon as smoke hits them. Lack of oxygen and the diseases caused by smoking, including emphysema, bronchitis, asthma, pneumonia, tuberculosis, and cancer eventually destroy your lungs. And smoking doesn't just affect smokers. The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that 3,000 nonsmokers a year die of lung cancer from second hand smoke.
- Cilia are tiny hair-like structures that move cells through blood. Smoking damages the cilia, and as a result, the amount of oxygen that reaches parts of your body decreases. Circulation is affected, your heart beats faster, and your blood pressure goes up. This leads to heart disease and strokes.
- Smoking irritates the stomach and intestines. It causes inflammation, and ulcers form. Men who smoke are twice as likely to have problems getting an erection. Sperm don't move around much in smokers, and the sperm count is lower. Women who smoke are more likely to get breast cancer and cervical cancer. Conceiving a child is harder, and menopause comes earlier for smokers. Pregnant women who smoke can miscarry, have a premature or stillborn baby, or give birth to a child with a low birth weight.
- If you take medication, it can be affected by smoking. Smoking increases the risk of blood clots if you take birth control medicine. Smoking also decreases the effect of insulin, ulcer medication, pain relievers, anti-depressants, anti-anxiety drugs, and caffeine. Such prescriptions as heparin, nortriptyline, and xanax may need to have dosage adjusted. Diagnostic tests such as liver function tests, blood pressure readings, pulmonary function tests, and blood tests can be inaccurate for smokers. Smokers look older since smoking wrinkles skin and causes yellow and brown stains on your teeth. Smoking dries out your skin and gives you bad breath. Your stomach and kidneys don't perform effectively.
- The Environmental Protection Agency claims that secondhand smoke increases sudden infant death and respiratory illness in children. Babies' lungs are too small to be able to tolerate smoke and being around smoke makes it hard for them to breathe. When mothers who breastfeed smoke, they pass tar and nicotine from their breast milk to their baby. The American Cancer Society's November 1999 study on secondhand smoke proves nonsmokers develop lung cancer, heart disease, and many other illnesses from inhaling somebody else's cigarette smoke.
